A.Historical Background of Mental Illness .....................................p.4

B.Cost of Mental Illness in Society ..............................................p.6

C.Stigma of Mental Illness in Society ...........................................p.9

D.Treatment of Mental Illness as a Social Problem ..........................p.11

III.Immediate Future of the Area of Mental Illness

A.What is most likely to occur within the next decade and why ............p.12

V. Works Cited ...........................................................................p. 14

Mental illness seems to be a growing problem in societies all around the world. Until the mid-twentieth century a large proportion of people who were classified as mentally ill and admitted to mental hospitals were actually suffering from physical ailments like epilepsy and brain tumors. Today researchers are learning about the biological origins of many mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, autism and alcoholism. The mental disorders that cause severe social

Prevalence Schizophrenia: About 1% of the population Major depression: Lifetime occurrence - 10% - 25% of women, 5% - 12% of men. Bipolar disorder (manic depression): Lifetime occurrence - 1% - 2% of the population. Panic Disorder: Lifetime occurrence - about 1% of males, 2% of females. Obsessive-compulsive disorders: Lifetime occurrence - about 2.5% of the population.

A current aspect of mental illness is the cost of it to the patients, to the community, for the services, etc. According to the SAMHA Office of Applied Studies mental disorders cost society about $204.4 billion (1994). In 1990 mental illnesses cost the U.S. $150 billion annually. $67 billion of this is for direct health care costs, such as hospitalization, nurses, doctors, nursing homes, medication, etc. The other $83 billion includes social services, disability and social security payments, and the expense of lost productivity. In 1994 these costs jumped to $91.7 billion (44.9 %) for the total economic societal costs of mental illness that were due to the costs of treatment and other direct costs for medical care. The rest of the total costs were morbidity and mortality costs, that is, the costs associated with loss of productivity due to illness (43.2 %) and with premature death (8.1 %) (SAMHSA, 2001).

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